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Turistas

Another week, another horror film aimed towards an over-saturated youth audience hungry for gore. This time it comes from Fox Atomic, a new label purposefully set up to release movies aimed toward a teenage crowd, preferably ones that require little thought or attention I'm imagining.

Their first release is Turistas, a horror film that sits uneasily between two different subgenres. It has the feel of Hostel style 'horror-porn' but with the atmosphere of a survivalist thriller in the vein of Deliverance. Which means that grisly violence is made more tolerable for the mass audience by some glorious scenery. And since Turistas is set in the sweltering heat of Brazil, it also means another box is ticked with some gratuitous nudity throughout.

The plot sees a group of mismatched travelers all on a bus which is journeying vicariously through South America. There's the Americans: Alex (Josh Duhamel) being the sensible brother to his sister Bea (Olivia Wilde) and her friend Amy (Beau Garrett), the Australian: independent and bi-lingual Pru (Melissa George) and the Brits: beer-guzzling and sex-starved Finn (Desmond Askew) and Liam (Max Brown).

After an unfortunate bus crash, the mismatched foreigners all find themselves stranded in a small village where they choose to spend their waiting time drinking at a perfect bar on the beach. But the next thing they know they're waking up from a drug-induced bout of unconsciousness, robbed of their passports, money and belongings. Unhelpful villagers and a constant language barrier means the group seek refuge with a local. A mistake that may cost them their lives.

When sitting down to watch a film like Turistas, you have to remember the genre territory that you're in. You're not about to watch a film that will receive a 4-star rave in the Times, neither are you watching a film which will sweep the Oscars at next year's ceremony. It's a movie which needs to be marked on a different scale that some others may be measured on. The first and most important question is, is it entertaining?

The good news is that it's a resounding yes. A slasher movie set around idyllic locales and featuring an attractive cast who wear little clothing throughout means it's eye candy from the start. Okay so that may make me sound alarmingly superficial but with the high production values of the film, thanks to Fox, Turistas makes a nice change from all the low-budget gritty horrors we've seen recently.

It also has a hint of realism that is sorely missing from so many of its peers. Okay so it's not exactly realistic but there's no man in a mask, no serial killer with a masochistic purpose, just people who want something from the travelers for vaguely rational reasons. The ominous secret that the

village hides is hinted at from the beginning and involves the trafficking of human organs, something not too far from reality.

The situation the travelers find themselves in is also nightmarishly easy to empathize with. Stranded in a foreign country with no way of escaping and with no sympathetic locals to help; it's a set of circumstances that help to create a constant sense of dread as the tourists get deeper and deeper into an area they don't know how to get out of. One of the film's failings however is a problem with pacing. The movie comes from director John Stockwell, best known for his aquatic adventures Blue Crush and Into The Blue. This means that even when the characters are trying to reach a safe place to stay after all of their belongings have been taken, they still want to waste time by exploring some underwater caves. Sure it looks nice but it's highly unrealistic.

Once the villains are revealed and the chase begins there's a nice messy, frantic edge to the proceedings which makes it more involving to watch. There's the much-advertised surgery scene which is suitably squirm-inducing but unlike the recent 'horror-porns' the gloss of the movie means the violence is easier to stomach.

Given the naturally short running time of the genre, the film is over before it's begun. The ending is depressingly anti-climactic and feels lazy after the intriguing build-up. The international cast are all adequate, with Melissa George being a standout, but then all they have to really do is scream and wear swimwear.

Turistas in the end is a perfectly serviceable Saturday night fright flick that looks and feels different to a lot of other horror films we've endured this year. It's not an incisive, harrowing or intelligent film but then if it was it probably wouldn't be half as much fun as it is.

Movie Grade: B-

Synopsis:

After a terrifying bus accident maroons a diverse group of young adventure travelers in a remote Brazilian beach town, they slowly discover that the white sand beaches and lush jungles are concealing a darker, unsettling secret.